2. Overview
• HMS mission
• Web strategy
• A few issues we’re
dealing with
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Communications & External Relations 2
3. Communicating the HMS Mission
• The mission of Harvard Medical School is to
create and nurture a diverse community of the
best people committed to leadership in alleviating
human suffering by disease.
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Communications & External Relations 3
4. Aspects of HMS’s mission
• World leader in biomedical & scientific research
• Excellence in medical education
• Diverse community & inclusive culture
• Affiliate relationships
º 17 hospitals & research institutes
º Mass General, the Brigham, BI, Children’s Hospital, etc.
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Communications & External Relations 4
5. Harvard Medicine’s “personality”
Harvard Medicine is... Harvard Medicine is not...
•Game changer •Reactive
•Innovative •Stodgy
•Epicenter •Insular
•Nimble •Slow moving
•About serving patients •Justan educational or
research institution
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Communications & External Relations 5
6. Translating the mission into actionable,
communication objectives
• Two ways OCER serves HMS mission
º Steward its public discourse
º Defining & fostering the school’s identity
• Education vs. biomedical research vs. service
º Emphasis on biomedical research often a priority, even if not
reflected in Web traffic
• Audience
º Internal vs. external
º Includes researchers, students, prospective students, alumni,
donors & supporters, faculty, staff, news media, clinicians,
community members, consumers
º Varies by project
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Communications & External Relations 6
7. Web strategy
• Build HMS’s reputation via multiple channels
• Establish a unified brand identity
• Develop our Web infrastructure
• Use analytics to optimize content
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Communications & External Relations 7
8. Web strategy #1: Define & foster
HMS’s reputation via multiple channels
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Communications & External Relations 8
9. Phase 1 of Web site redesign launched
March 2012
• Home page, "About HMS,"
News, etc.
• Drupal 6 content
management system
• Other features: Events,
blog, and people search
• Successful launch
• High-caliber Web site
completed "on a
shoestring”
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Communications & External Relations 9
10. Since then we’ve been developing
our Web channels
• Web site 202,535 visits/month
• Mobile visits 11.5% of Web visits
• Facebook 42,643 fans
• Twitter 21,178 followers
• YouTube 4,974 subscribers
• Weekly e-letter 26,424 subscribers
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Communications & External Relations 10
11. Web team launched “Paper Chase,”
which searches PubMed
A section of the
HMS Website
that collects
publications
listed in
PubMed for
HMS, HSDM,
and our sixteen
affiliates.
Launch Date:
Sep 20
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Communications & External Relations 11
12. What can it do?
Allows visitors
to search by
keyword or
MeSH topic, a
technical
category
system used
by PubMed
and many
medical
journals.
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Communications & External Relations 12
13. Specialized Filtering
Visitors can
use the links in
the right
sidebar to filter
the list of
results by the
recognized top
ten journals
and by HMS,
HSDM, and
sixteen
affiliates
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Communications & External Relations 13
14. Mid-summer: launched HMN
e-newsletter
• Harvard Medicine News
was created as the new
vision of the HMS print
newsletter, Focus.
• A more timely publication.
News now delivered
weekly, not monthly as
before.
• A more digestible design
than the Focus
eNewsletter and widely
viewed vehicle for our
social media channels.
• Inaugural Issue
Jun 25
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Communications & External Relations 14
15. (An important tidbit: HMS senior
leadership are big on serif fonts!)
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Communications & External Relations 15
16. Challenges
• Designed and built
in-house
• Need to support all
major email clients,
browsers on both Mac
and PC
• Create a workflow that
works for both editorial
and interactive teams
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Communications & External Relations 16
17. The future
• Automatically
generated code
• More control given to
editorial team in
entering articles for
layout
• Flexible template to
accommodate extra
content (i.e.: a third
second-tier article)
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Communications & External Relations 17
19. We’ve had a few experiences with
“stewarding HMS’s public discourse”
• Gabrielle - 14 year
old freshman
• On August 30th,
"Make a Wish"
fulfilled her dream
of “attending
Harvard Medical
School”
• Same day,
Bloomberg wrote
story about
primate center
issue
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Communications & External Relations 19
20. We are exploring social media monitoring
process, based on Air Force assessment tool
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Communications & External Relations 20
21. One HMS channel that needs a little
attention:
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Communications & External Relations 21
22. Web strategy #2: Establish a
unified brand identity for HMS
• Redesigned HMS Web site creates unified brand
• However, it only extends to top-level sections of
the site – “Education,” “Research,” “News,” etc.
• Research department
Web sites have different
logo treatments, color
palettes, navigation
paradigms, etc.
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Communications & External Relations 22
23. Phase 2 of Web redesign project
to address research dept. sites
• Extend current HMS Web site’s look & feel to basic
research department Web sites
º Multi-site Drupal 7 implementation
º Custom logo based on HMS branding guidelines
º Main navigation customized to department
º 3 banner options and 6-8 custom theme variant options
º Restricted content areas using e-Commons credentials
º Faculty/student list & detail pages with tagging taxonomy
º Trumba for external and internal events
º Accommodation of existing databases
º Google Search Application integration & customization
º Blog landing pages
º Tag cloud
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Communications & External Relations 23
24. Web strategy #3: Develop our
infrastructure
• Drupal needs upgrade (6->7) to future-proof CMS
º Google Search Appliance upgrade needed to improve relevancy of results
º Enhancements to Drupal CMS' permissions model & content
management
º Implement Kaltura for video
º Optimize content delivery for mobile
• Intranet (“e-Commons”) needs significant upgrade
º Content not easily searchable
º Not easy to communicate events
º Piecemeal workarounds are non-scalable & sometimes non-secure
º Content to be displayed publically may not always be appropriate
º Causing scope increase in Phase 2 Web project, due to need for
restricted content areas
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Communications & External Relations 24
26. Web strategy # 4: Use analytics
to optimize content
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Communications & External Relations 26
27. A few issues we’re dealing with
• Brand fragmentation & decentralization
• Establishing priorities within budget constraints
• Making data driven decisions
• Best practices for stakeholder approval
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Communications & External Relations 27
28. #1 Brand fragmentation: Phase 2 to
address “letting 1,000 flowers bloom”
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Communications & External Relations 28
29. Trying to sensitive research depts. to
untapped potential of their Web sites
• HMS brand doesn’t solely refer to visual aspect of
website, but rather a user’s total experience
• All components – messaging, navigation menu
titles, imagery & visual design – must combine to
form a solution that answers users’ needs
• If users don’t feel a site is meeting their needs,
they begin to form negative impressions about the
site and, potentially, the institution the site
represents
• Web sites should reflect HMS’ commitment to
excellence
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Communications & External Relations 29
30. By and large, Research Directors seem
mostly receptive to switching over
• Incentives we’re pointing out
º HMS templates with department-specific logo,
main nav & default search
º State-of-the-art CMS allows for easy updating
º Advanced functionality for calendaring, faculty &
student listing, content blocks, etc.
º Optimized for mobile, multimedia, social media,
search
º OCER to perform the content migration
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Communications & External Relations 30
31. #2 Establishing priorities: How do
achieve goals, given budget constraints?
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Communications & External Relations 31
32. #3 Data-driven decision-making
• Instant results from Web publishing can be a
blessing and a curse
• Still, it seems essential to connect to an audience
º Content is expensive
º Always important to show ROI
• In a politicized, decentralized environment, to what
extent are you able to effectively use Web
analytics to guide decision-making?
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Communications & External Relations 32
33. #4 Stakeholder approval: An
ongoing challenge for us
• The Project: Develop a video to accompany
Dean Flier’s “Welcome to the New Year”
email to the community.
• The Proposal: Produce an engaging piece
using the “Sideways” editing style.
• The Challenge: We operate in a complex
academic environment.
• Reframing the Conversation:
• How can we encourage stakeholders to
embrace innovative storytelling?
• What’s the best way to make the case for
fewer content points and shorter videos?
• Do you have strategies for managing
stakeholder involvement to keep complex
projects moving?
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Communications & External Relations 33
Hinweis der Redaktion
talk about new students... fresh lab jackets ***
-faculty -researchers -staff include affiliates.. not include them... --- - ”audience – “how important is “international”... “Oh very important” --- -Value weighting / prioritization not always clear --- -primary care -physician assistant – 2 yrs ... makes as much as female primary care ****
Figuring out relationship with HMS IT
(e.g. HR forms, Travel & Reimbursement forms, IT network outages & client support, etc.) for audiences and Quad-based collaboration
-facebook... upload photo of dogs... versus – disease... --- (We ’re all probably familiar with the sometimes whimsical tastes of Web visitors)
The Project Develop a video to accompany the HMS Dean’s “welcome to the new year” letter, which goes to all faculty, staff and students (~20,000 people) Highlight some of the dean’s key initiatives The Potential Last year’s dean’s video has received more than 50,000 hits on YouTube Fodder for various sections of the HMS website Useful as a recruitment tool Useful as a development tool Proposal Produce an engaging piece, using the “Sideways” editing style, which involves split frames combined with movement of clips around the screen Select dynamic speakers who can cover the required content points in their own voice Limit content points to keep the final video ~3 minutes Challenges Initial approval of concept delayed, even though deadline is fixed Finally receive the green light, but later learn that we need to reconsider a fundamental element of the concept (i.e., having spokespeople rather than an omniscient narrator) Approval of content points delayed Later learn that we must include substantive descriptions of 9 new initiatives Script must be approved by the stakeholder for each initiative (SOP for our department’s projects). Several stakeholders introduce edits that bog down the narrative. Deadline for final product moved up Discussion of Potential Solutions / Reframing the Conversation How can we encourage stakeholders to embrace innovative storytelling? What’s the best way to make the case for fewer content points and shorter videos? Do you have strategies for managing stakeholder involvement to keep complex projects moving?